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Thursday, December 20, 2012

The time is over for excuses, elaborate arguments, and
traditions that talk of personal security. Time and again, these collective
murders. Time and again, children and adults sacrificed while, as is also the
case with drugs, no one dares to challenge the status quo.

The immense business behind
these habits, which moreover is the jurisdiction of each State, cannot continue
to maintain itself with additional sacrifices on the altar of those “vested
constitutional rights”. The United States cannot continue to offer such a bad
example (as it likewise does with capital punishment) claiming that this isn’t
the federal government’s jurisdiction.

No more guns! In large
collectives there will always be people who are mentally deranged. But to the
extent possible, it is the task of the government to ensure the safety of its
citizens.

I trust that the horrendous massacre
at the school in Newtown, Connecticut will prompt reconsideration
among the authorities and representatives of that great people who, due to
unspeakable interests, are subjected to these anachronistic “customs”. Some of
them, under pressure from the National Rifle Association, are incapable of
reacting even in the face of so many dead children, due to the immense benefits
that they obtain. Others, unable to express their opposition, walk the
tightropes of close congressional votes. But what is certain is that the United States
cannot continue to set these too frequent examples for the world that they
should be leading.

As underscored in the press
“the killer followed a terrible pattern set in other similar massacres. He
carried four weapons and was wearing a bullet-proof vest”.

According to “El País”, “this
year to-date the national system that monitors the weapons trade has detected
16,300,000 sales” (but an unlimited number of firearms may be sold in each “sale”).
Last year, of the 14,000 murders committed in the United States, 10,000 of them were due
to firearms. In 2009 there were almost 600 accidental deaths attributed to
firearms and some 19,000 suicides committed by the same method.

President Obama “with a
father’s gaze” and tears in his eyes called for taking “significant action”. Take
that action, Mr. President, without so much as a second thought for those who
observe these events with dollar signs in their eyes and continue to defend the
indefensible and inadmissible. Amend the Second Amendment behind which the
accomplices of this tragedy hide.

And then fix your gaze, with
firmness and determination, on the children who die each day anonymously from
neglect, the thousands of children who die of hunger each day… while our
satiated society looks the other way.

Take
advantage of this tragic occasion to confront this disgrace, this collective
shame.

On top of the Autonomous Community’s very
debatable decision to allow Eurvegas to be built in Madrid, there is the absolutely intolerable
absurdity, the “legal humiliation” of unlimited permissiveness, the “lawless
state” of supposedly authorizing these acknowledged international predators to
engage in activities and actions that all other enterprises and citizens are
generally and sensibly prohibited from doing.

How can we brag about the “rule of law” if laws
are changed to accommodate this huge international gaming conglomerate?

I can’t believe that what they say the regional
and national authorities are willing to tolerate is true... although only a few
months ago I didn’t believe that they would respond to pressure from the
markets with budget cuts in healthcare, education and science... and not only
have they made cuts, but they are also jeopardizing achievements in social
welfare and democratic principles.

Messieurs Presidents of the Government and
Community of Madrid: proceed with caution, because bowing before those
potential profits may prove so embarrassing to a majority of the people that it
could trigger a genuine citizen rebellion.

We are already puzzled. And outraged, too. But
we are still restraining ourselves.

Don’t play with fire. Don’t change the rules of
peaceful coexistence. In the end, those who contravene the rules of democracy
always get burned.

The worst coups d’état are those that are imperceptible, those that at the onset are difficult to identify, that don’t permit us to take the right measures at the right time. The ambushes are so disguised (risk premiums, rating agencies, opaque investments, unpunished “black-hole banking"...) that it’s very hard to recognize them until the situation is practically irreversible. And not only do they debilitate the State and create hard-to-compensate social inequalities, but they have also dared to install governments in power without holding elections, under the gaze of our passive and perplexed citizens.

With great skill they are able to achieve their objective of “less government and more market". Politicians and parliamentarians discredit themselves, especially when there are no corrective mechanisms to counteract majority governments that are constantly passing “rolling pin” laws. And the market’s “coup d’état” achieves its goal to privatize everything... including political parties.

The large financial consortia that are responsible for this crisis are constantly hounding those who, at a given moment in history, agreed to replace democratic principles with the laws of the markets, and international institutions for the groups of plutocrats that have done so much damage, particularly in the western world. This is a systemic crisis that requires solid leaders, capable of explaining to the citizens what happens, and designing clear strategies for the future.

What’s certain is that as soon as they were “rescued”, bankruptcies began to emerge with no explanation of the reasons for these incredible accumulated deficits. Where did the rescue funds go? What is really our present status? Who were those who were incapable of perceiving what was happening while there was still time to prevent or at least mitigate the serious consequences?

As Ignacio Ramonet has observed, public services are silently being privatized, despite the fact that the outrages committed have largely been alleviated with public funds and much sacrifice on the part of the majority of citizens.

The “great domain” rules a great part of the West, while none other than Latin America, India... are skillfully escaping the last throes of the globalizers.

The solution lies in genuine democracy that will rapidly prompt a re-founding of the United Nations System and the immediate disbanding of the G8 and G20; genuine democracy that will immediately amend the Treaties of the European Union, so that a political, economic and fiscal federation coupled with autonomy in security matters may enable the Union to function properly, so that 27 countries don’t necessarily have to march to the drum of just one; and on the local level, in all of those countries in which the parliaments are discredited for following out-dated rules of popular representation, and in which the governments don’t keep the campaign promises that prompted their election, genuine democracy that will be strengthened by returning to the ethical values that were replaced by commercial ones, to enable them, with the necessary indispensable national consensus, to face our present challenges, putting those responsible for the coup d’état, once unmasked, in their proper place.

Only then will we be able to counteract these “coups d’état” on the part of the markets at the international, European and national levels...

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The bad thing about their distorting situations
is that in the end they actually believe it, adopting measures that confirm the
lies that they fabricated. Much was said of the “right to strike"... and
then they did everything possible to prevent many workers from exercising that
right. Examples: salary deductions that many citizens with economic hardships
can’t absorb, especially when faced with veiled threats that their employment
contracts might not be renewed; making all
employees sign that they agree to provide the “minimum required services”
during the strike...

As a scientist I reject biased descriptions of
reality... because they are eventually harmful to everyone. And whether they
like to recognize it or not (and as was to be expected and has often been
predicted by those qualified to do so) the reality is that present policies
will lead not only to genuine economic disaster, but to social disaster as
well. Look at what is happening in Greece and Portugal. Please
stop haughtily repeating that you are in possession of the truth, that there
are no alternatives, and that your roadmap is the best and only one!

Perhaps they still have time to abandon their
bulldozer tactics and reach agreements, offering incentives to SMEs and the
self-employed... and to offer a plan with
clear objectives and bold and effective measures to implement it, including and
foremost, the very structure of the state. The Constitution should be the
solution, not the problem...

Don’t act upon figures that you yourselves have distorted.
Listen to the people. Rectify.

What do the fanatical
“privatizers” have to say now”? Those who have weakened our States’ provision
of public services “in view of the proven efficiency of the private sector”, should
now reconsider and propose solutions that benefit from responsible business
achievements both in the public and private sectors, with the requisite regulatory
intervention and mechanisms to constantly ensure transparency and, in the case
of public services, the ultimate control of the State.

Iberia, one
of the most prestigious components of “Brand Spain,” is now in a difficult
situation.

Use is good. Abuse is not.

Look at those who are now the
major shareholders of our former large public enterprises… and you will see
that on too many occasions there has been a simple transfer of the State’s
economic power to large multinational corporations.

And when disaster strikes… we
anxiously look toward the State to graciously come to the rescue.

Congratulations. We should all
take note of the benefits reaped by this achievement of “citizen power”
expressed in person and virtually by those who with their protests and specific
actions, such as preventing so many evictions, have provoked a rapid “domino
effect” that has embedded it self in the popular consciousness and has prompted
intervention from social networks, political parties and, in the end and as was
to be expected, from the government itself.

Now, start working toward new
achievements! Social networks should soon turn to transforming some of their
(our) dreams into realities.